Mlkk Workbook #003 The Search for Unseen

This workbook is comprised of the work of Mlkk Studio in 2016 Fall and 2018. The projects featured are across the globe including Hong Kong China, Hawaii USA and Gold Coast Australia.

Aesop Claremont, Australia

Our design is inspired by the unique demography of the site. Perth is one of the most rapidly growing and prosperous major cities in Australia. Among its residents, more than 40% were not born in Australia, instead most of them are from England, New Zealand and South Africa. Besides the cultural diversity, over 20% of the working labour in Perth are professionals and well-educated. We believe the uniqueness of this target audience group which is diverse and receptive to higher concept design would be a great opportunity to explore retail store design beyond usual dimensions. The store is crafted into a staged sculptural piece, which is read as an art piece instead of a retail furniture. Such visual impact helps to simulate and encourage conversation with the target audience.It also helps to stimulate their curiosity and encourage communication. Art is integrated into the store concept as a platform to rethink the retail experience.

Aesop Hong Kong Office

Office is a place where people spend a significant portion of their life in. There are numerous standards of office design to ensure the human comfort level and in turn the efficiency of employees. Our design is inspired to distill the typical office standard into different senses requirements which are the fundamental elements to determine human comfort. Through considering the design from different senses, such as vision, odor, hearing, touch and interactions with the space, it encourages the design to evolve into more user-experience-focused and allows more flexibility to be tailor-made to suit the company and brand culture.

Aesop Bondi Junction, Australia

Our design is inspired by the common and fading memory of the audience. The visitors of the site are mostly local Australians with a very similar background. They grew up with local culture and shared a lot of memories and experiences in the 60s and 70s. We believe this fascinating background offers us the opportunity to curate a deeper level of retail experience through triggering one’s memory of the everyday living in the past. The design is composed of raw pine wood framework resonating the most abundant and standard housing framing construction method, especially in suburb Australia. The contrast of exposing the raw material and the seemingly incomplete construction status in a refined shopping mall context signifies our intention to trigger participation beyond typical retail experiences. The design also applies many generic domestic items from a typical housing in the 60s and 70s to the key retail components such as sink and taps to echo the exposed framing structure and the concept. It helps to create an environment which allows the audience to have a sense of dejavu from their own past.

Aesop QV, Australia

We would like to stimulate one’s imagination in the design through having an eccentric twist to reinterpret and challenge the perception of metal display shelving units, which are one of the most basic components for the retail store and have developed some clear and stable stereotypes. Each metal unit is fictionalized as if they all came alive from the typical metal racks one day. Each unit is captured in a moment of humorous spontaneous postures such as standing, leaning, bowing and greeting. This way would facilitate the visitors to pay more attention to the display which they may overlook over time; and at the same time stimulate their imaginations and encourage further interactions.